Baroque Spring

Duration

02 Hours 30 Minutes

01 Hours 30 Minutes

02 Hours 45 Minutes

Genre

"Classical

Music"

Episodes

Series

Episode

Title

FirstBroadcast

Comments

AO3

01

20130304

Katie Derham today spotlights some early works by JS Bach and some masterworks of the French Baroque as part of Baroque Spring. The choir which Bach himself conducted is heard in a joyful motet recorded in St Thomas's Church Leipzig and the famous 'Eurovision' trumpet fanfare which begins Charpentier's Te Deum is heard in the glorious acoustic of the Basilica of St Denis, the burial place of a host of French kings.

Katie Derham today spotlights some early works by JS Bach and some masterworks of the French Baroque as part of Baroque Spring. The choir which Bach himself conducted is heard in a joyful motet recorded in St Thomas's Church Leipzig and the famous 'Eurovision' trumpet fanfare which begins Charpentier's Te Deum is heard in the glorious acoustic of the Basilica of St Denis, the burial place of a host of French kings.

Penny Gore this week highlights Baroque music making from around Europe.

There's a focus on the seldom-performed dramatic oratorios heard in eighteenth century Naples, Rome and Venice including the first performance in modern times of Pergolesi's 'Seven Words,' Porpora's Vespers and Vivaldi's Juditha Triumphans, commissioned to celebrate the victory of the Republic of Venice over the Turks during the siege of Corfu in 1716 and first performed by the girls of a Venetian orphanage.

There will also be a chance to hear Johan Helmich Roman's 'Wedding Music,' the Swedish equivalent of Handel's Firework's Music - written for performance at Drottningholm Palace in 1744 and settings of the Magnificat by Jan Zelenka, Johann Kuhnau - Johann Sebastian Bach's predecessor at St Thomas' church Leipzig - and by the great master himself, all performed by the Bach Collegium of Japan directed by Masaaki Suzuki.

Today there's Handel's youthful Dixit Dominus written in Italy and his Water Music first heard from a barge on the River Thames in honour of George I. There's also the chance to sample a similarly festive work by one of Handel's Danish contemporaries and a setting of the Magnificat by Bach's predecessor at St Thomas's Church, Leipzig.

Katie Derham highlights some masterworks of the Baroque as part of Baroque Spring. Today Bach's monumental The Art of Fugue is heard in a performance given at the Benedictine Abbey of Melk, perched high on the cliffs above the river Danube. Before that, some jewel-like keyboard miniatures of Francois Couperin are juxtaposed with Ravel's homage to him in an unbroken sequence played by the French pianist, Alexandre Tharaud in the imposing cathedral in Gerona with its magnificent views of Catalonia.

A terrible drama of life, love and death, Il martirio di Santa Teodosia was probably performed for the first time in Rome, under the auspices of Christine, queen of Sweden in 1684. It tells the history of Theodosia, a martyr in Tyre under Roman persecution. Scarlatti's libretto concentrates on the virginal aspect of Teodosia as she rejects prince Arsenio's love and surrenders to divine love. Arsenio, the son of the Roman governor Urbano, is hopelessly in love with her. Urbano tries to pursue Teodosia but she rejects him as she does too the crafty Roman prefect, Decio. The tyrannical and violent Urbano threatens Teodosia and finally orders her martyrdom. She dies, aged just eighteen in 308 A.D.

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)

Il Martirio di Santa Teodosia, oratorio

Teodosia....Maria Esopada.... (soprano),

Decio....Carlos Mena (alto),

Arsenio....Andrew Tortoise (tenor),

Urbano....Luigi de Donato (baritone),

Al Ayre Español

Eduardo López Banzo (director).

AO3

03

20130320

Penny Gore pesents the Vespers for the Assumption by Nicola Antonio Porpora.

The fabled Naples-born singing teacher of the great castrati of the day, sometime rival to Handel in London and teacher of the young Haydn in Vienna, Porpora was once one of the most fashionable composers of the Baroque.

This afternoon there is a rare chance to hear a complete performance of his extended Vespro per la Festività dell'Assunta which was first performed in Venice in 1744 by the girls of the Ospedaletto, one of four orphanages that specialised in music, and a rival to Vivaldi's Pietà. Maestro Porpora of the Ospedaletto would later become a character in George Sand's novel 'Consuelo.'

The story of Judith and her victory on the invading Holofernes was an allegory of Venice defeating the invading Turks in Corfu: the Assyrian king Nebuchadnezzar sends an army against Israel to demand overdue tributes. Under the leadership of the general Holofernes, the Assyrians lay siege to the town of Bethulia and are about to conquer it. The young Jewish widow Judith goes to him to implore mercy. He falls in love with her and she indulges him. After a rich banquet and having drunk much wine, Holofernes falls asleep. Judith beheads him, flees the enemy camp, and returns victorious to Bethulia.

Based on the the Book of Judith, Vivaldi's Judith triumphant over the barbarians of Holofernes was commissioned to celebrate the victory of the Republic of Venice over the Turks during the siege of Corfu in July 1716 and in this, his sole surviving oratorio, Vivaldi certainly rose to the occasion: the orchestra deploys an extraordinary panoply of exotica including timpani, 2 trumpets, mandolin, four theorbos, five violas all'inglese (viola da gamba), a viola d'amore, two recorders and two soprano chalumeaux, the latter depicting the chirping turtle doves.

AO3

04

Baroque Spring Opera Matinee

20130307

Katie Derham presents a performance of Handel's oratorio, Jeptha.

Written in the autograph score, at the end of the chorus "How dark, O Lord, are thy decrees" is the moving note: "Reached here on 13 February 1751, unable to go on owing to weakening of the sight of my left eye." This was to prove the ailing Handel's last oratorio and in it he returns to many of the preoccupations of his earlier music in a three-part drama based on the warlike pages of the 'Book of Judges' in the Old Testament.

Handel Jeptha

Jephtha....Kurt Streit (tenor),

Storgè....Kristina Hammarström (mezzo),

Iphis....Katherine Watson (soprano),

Hamor....David DQ Lee (countertenor),

Zebul....Neal Davies (bass-baritone),

Angel....Rachel Redmond (soprano),

Les Arts Florissants, William Christie (conductor).

AO3

05 LAST

20130322

Penny Gore this week highlights Baroque music making from around Europe including today a setting of the Magnificat by Zelenka and by his admirer, JS Bach.

Episodes

Series

Episode

Title

FirstBroadcast

Comments

AO3

01

20130304

Katie Derham today spotlights some early works by JS Bach and some masterworks of the French Baroque as part of Baroque Spring. The choir which Bach himself conducted is heard in a joyful motet recorded in St Thomas's Church Leipzig and the famous 'Eurovision' trumpet fanfare which begins Charpentier's Te Deum is heard in the glorious acoustic of the Basilica of St Denis, the burial place of a host of French kings.

Katie Derham today spotlights some early works by JS Bach and some masterworks of the French Baroque as part of Baroque Spring. The choir which Bach himself conducted is heard in a joyful motet recorded in St Thomas's Church Leipzig and the famous 'Eurovision' trumpet fanfare which begins Charpentier's Te Deum is heard in the glorious acoustic of the Basilica of St Denis, the burial place of a host of French kings.

Penny Gore this week highlights Baroque music making from around Europe.

There's a focus on the seldom-performed dramatic oratorios heard in eighteenth century Naples, Rome and Venice including the first performance in modern times of Pergolesi's 'Seven Words,' Porpora's Vespers and Vivaldi's Juditha Triumphans, commissioned to celebrate the victory of the Republic of Venice over the Turks during the siege of Corfu in 1716 and first performed by the girls of a Venetian orphanage.

There will also be a chance to hear Johan Helmich Roman's 'Wedding Music,' the Swedish equivalent of Handel's Firework's Music - written for performance at Drottningholm Palace in 1744 and settings of the Magnificat by Jan Zelenka, Johann Kuhnau - Johann Sebastian Bach's predecessor at St Thomas' church Leipzig - and by the great master himself, all performed by the Bach Collegium of Japan directed by Masaaki Suzuki.

Today there's Handel's youthful Dixit Dominus written in Italy and his Water Music first heard from a barge on the River Thames in honour of George I. There's also the chance to sample a similarly festive work by one of Handel's Danish contemporaries and a setting of the Magnificat by Bach's predecessor at St Thomas's Church, Leipzig.

Katie Derham highlights some masterworks of the Baroque as part of Baroque Spring. Today Bach's monumental The Art of Fugue is heard in a performance given at the Benedictine Abbey of Melk, perched high on the cliffs above the river Danube. Before that, some jewel-like keyboard miniatures of Francois Couperin are juxtaposed with Ravel's homage to him in an unbroken sequence played by the French pianist, Alexandre Tharaud in the imposing cathedral in Gerona with its magnificent views of Catalonia.

A terrible drama of life, love and death, Il martirio di Santa Teodosia was probably performed for the first time in Rome, under the auspices of Christine, queen of Sweden in 1684. It tells the history of Theodosia, a martyr in Tyre under Roman persecution. Scarlatti's libretto concentrates on the virginal aspect of Teodosia as she rejects prince Arsenio's love and surrenders to divine love. Arsenio, the son of the Roman governor Urbano, is hopelessly in love with her. Urbano tries to pursue Teodosia but she rejects him as she does too the crafty Roman prefect, Decio. The tyrannical and violent Urbano threatens Teodosia and finally orders her martyrdom. She dies, aged just eighteen in 308 A.D.

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)

Il Martirio di Santa Teodosia, oratorio

Teodosia....Maria Esopada.... (soprano),

Decio....Carlos Mena (alto),

Arsenio....Andrew Tortoise (tenor),

Urbano....Luigi de Donato (baritone),

Al Ayre Español

Eduardo López Banzo (director).

AO3

03

20130320

Penny Gore pesents the Vespers for the Assumption by Nicola Antonio Porpora.

The fabled Naples-born singing teacher of the great castrati of the day, sometime rival to Handel in London and teacher of the young Haydn in Vienna, Porpora was once one of the most fashionable composers of the Baroque.

This afternoon there is a rare chance to hear a complete performance of his extended Vespro per la Festività dell'Assunta which was first performed in Venice in 1744 by the girls of the Ospedaletto, one of four orphanages that specialised in music, and a rival to Vivaldi's Pietà. Maestro Porpora of the Ospedaletto would later become a character in George Sand's novel 'Consuelo.'

The story of Judith and her victory on the invading Holofernes was an allegory of Venice defeating the invading Turks in Corfu: the Assyrian king Nebuchadnezzar sends an army against Israel to demand overdue tributes. Under the leadership of the general Holofernes, the Assyrians lay siege to the town of Bethulia and are about to conquer it. The young Jewish widow Judith goes to him to implore mercy. He falls in love with her and she indulges him. After a rich banquet and having drunk much wine, Holofernes falls asleep. Judith beheads him, flees the enemy camp, and returns victorious to Bethulia.

Based on the the Book of Judith, Vivaldi's Judith triumphant over the barbarians of Holofernes was commissioned to celebrate the victory of the Republic of Venice over the Turks during the siege of Corfu in July 1716 and in this, his sole surviving oratorio, Vivaldi certainly rose to the occasion: the orchestra deploys an extraordinary panoply of exotica including timpani, 2 trumpets, mandolin, four theorbos, five violas all'inglese (viola da gamba), a viola d'amore, two recorders and two soprano chalumeaux, the latter depicting the chirping turtle doves.

AO3

04

Baroque Spring Opera Matinee

20130307

Katie Derham presents a performance of Handel's oratorio, Jeptha.

Written in the autograph score, at the end of the chorus "How dark, O Lord, are thy decrees" is the moving note: "Reached here on 13 February 1751, unable to go on owing to weakening of the sight of my left eye." This was to prove the ailing Handel's last oratorio and in it he returns to many of the preoccupations of his earlier music in a three-part drama based on the warlike pages of the 'Book of Judges' in the Old Testament.

Handel Jeptha

Jephtha....Kurt Streit (tenor),

Storgè....Kristina Hammarström (mezzo),

Iphis....Katherine Watson (soprano),

Hamor....David DQ Lee (countertenor),

Zebul....Neal Davies (bass-baritone),

Angel....Rachel Redmond (soprano),

Les Arts Florissants, William Christie (conductor).

AO3

05 LAST

20130322

Penny Gore this week highlights Baroque music making from around Europe including today a setting of the Magnificat by Zelenka and by his admirer, JS Bach.